hamachi with pickled ramps.

evo pizza.

North Charleston.
Left Hand Brewing Ginger Beer.
Carrot Ginger soup.
'Pork Trifecta' pizza.

Dessert: house made chocolates.
White truffles with dark chocolate.
Cardamom and bay leaf bonbon.
Lavender chocolate.
Vanilla bean chocolate.

high cotton.

To eat: charcuterie plate.

Duck liver mousse, pork rillettes, genoa, pancetta.

Yes, it was good.

on the go.

I'm blogging on the Tarmac in Charlotte. Feels good.

cherry heering.

Found some at Old Town last night. Look out for a Blood & Sand on the cocktail list soon. More to come later.

more from the windy city.

Took a tour of Plitt Seafood Company. As we were getting on the bus, Gerard Craft, F&W Best New Chef 08 was coming off the bus. Kinda cool.

Plitt was cool - the most intense smell of the sea; the place was packed with whole fish. It looked like they had it displayed for the purpose of our tour.
More whole fish. 
And a picture of our ham platter from The Publican. Served with goat butter and peasant bread.

the publican.

The Publican in Chicago. 

Ordered: La Quercia Prosciutto Rosso, Serrano Ham, Italian Prosciutto.

To drink: Allagash White and an Angry Kings from Avery Brewing Co. in Indiana.

nachbar.

Live jazz on Wednesday at the Nachbar in Germantown. Great spot - kind of like Louisville's own Spotted Pig. They've got an amazing beer selection that rotates with an impressive degree of regularity, a mean jukebox, and a fascinating sign over the beer cooler that reads, "no smiling."

Yes, please.

blackbird.

Went to dinner at Blackbird in Chicago last night. This is under the same umbrella as avec., and the newly opened Publican, where we had some beers and some hams before heading to Blackbird to finish up.

Decided to check out Blackbird because the food was such a departure from the kind of stuff Proof cooks, and the kind of stuff I'm accustomed to eating. It's certainly not a full fledged nosedive into the realm of 'molecular gastronomy,' but the chef, Mike Sheerin, came from wd-50 in New York, and obviously has a great skill at combining some very intriguing flavors and textures.

To start I had grilled octopus confit with coconut-horseradish, fingerling potatoes, granny smith apples and candied black olives. This was one of the best octopus dishes I've had in a long time.

We had a mid course of grilled sturgeon with celery root puree, anjou pears and sauerkraut gnocchi - again, an exploration of some really interesting flavors.

My entree was a seared duck breast with confit of thigh, with smoked cauliflower, salsify, fried chocolate and celery. Can't explain it, but it was damn good.

cocktail testing.

Sorry for the delay in my posting. I've been basking in the glow of fatherhood and readjusting to life in a cooler climate - battling snow storms, trying to stay fit and trying to keep Proof busy and energized in what could be a slower season for some. We've had a fortunate January and are looking forward to a great February, despite some of the 'doom + gloom' you may have been privy to in the media.

Today we had another cocktail tasting at the restaurant for some cocktails we are putting together for a consulting job in Virginia. Most of the cocktails were classics, but several were some new joints pieced together for the tasting. Of course we had to give some love to the coupe glasses, as the client is a classic bar with an old school vibe.

Some maraschino liquer, Aperol, Yellow Chartreuse, eggs, elderflower - just a couple of the tools of destruction.

A bevy of different cocktails. Who says work isn't fun?

xmas day.

Christmas Day in my family has always been a day to indulge in some great comfort food around a fire. Just because we are in South Carolina doesn't mean that tradition was going to stop. Charged with making some breakfast for everyone this year, I made a 'strata' - sort of a savory bread pudding with swiss chard, sausage, caramelized onions, garlic, french bread and eggs.

We also have a homemade persimmon pudding that some of my parents' friends give to us every year with locally grown persimmons. Yum indeed.

still waiting for finn.

Went today to pick up the cake from Baked. A very cool shop - somewhat out of place with the very trad-happy style of most of the lowcountry cookshops surrounding it, but still seemed to be a welcome addition. Jars of cookies were calling my name. I went with oatmeal.
A view to a kill.
They served Stumptown Coffee, wet dream of any coffee geek. They are a microroaster of Portland, Oregon. Also have a branch in the ACE Hotel, next to Clyde Common. They look cool as hell, though I've never been there. I got a cup of coffee, which was actually not as great as I thought it would be. Maybe an espresso was more representative of their skills?

awesome.

This video may have just convinced me to start drinking Miller High Life Light. "Keep those tall blonds cold."

teeter's pizza.

"Two fingers on every hot slice."

Can't explain. All I can say is I've made pizzas for them in the past.

charleston thai.

Went for lunch today to a great place in downtown Charleston called 'Basil.' One of the coolest signs I have ever seen, it was a neon sign adorned with a 'cruiser' on top - cruisers are very popular in a lot of foreign countries, Thailand being one of them. I can't remember the name of the most popular brand, but they've started to sell them in NYC. I wonder if the one at the top of the sign is the same kind...
For lunch we had a couple of things, all of which were stellar. The place had a great energy, and we opted to sit at the counter where you could see the line staff preparing all of the hot items. It was really cool to see how this kitchen was arranged - not like any restaurant I've ever worked in before. It was like a mash-up between a short order Waffle House-esque arrangement and a Thai street food vendor.

The food was so clean and multi layered -- the soup was served in the contraption above. You can't tell from the picture, but there was a flame that burned through the cylinder in the middle the entire time we were eating the soup, keeping it all simmering and releasing the most insane smell.

Definitely plan on going back.

best birthday cake.

So I'm heading to Charleston, SC in the morning to be there for the birth of my son, Finn. Not only will it be the celebration of his first (day) birthday, but it will also be Christmas. Now obviously, how do you welcome a beautiful new being into this world when his birthday could be on the same day as Christmas?

The first step: the best birthday cake possible.

BakedNYC (located in Brooklyn) recently opened their first outpost in Charleston. Very different slice of life than Brooklyn, but a great place for foodies, as well. SO, in anticipation of my own monumental event, I decided to special order a birthday cake for Finn from Baked (they've been in Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, etc.). I went with the sweet and salty, because if he is anything like his Dad, he's going to love caramel and sea salt.

They describe the cake as: "Dark chocolate cake infused with a salty caramel, caramel chocolate ganache and topped with fleur de sel." Wow.

This little guy is gonna have it good.

fried chicken.

Though I'm trying to keep swizzle a blog focused on my love of the drink, I couldn't resist snapping this photo as I strolled through the kitchen before service on Wednesday evening. Wednesday's have become our fried chicken day, and it's been well received from the day we began running that daily special.

In my opinion, it's one of the biggest deals in the Louisville restaurant world - a hidden gem of great proportion that even the largest men struggle to complete. Let it be known, there is always a take-out box in the mix post-Chicken frenzy.

Anyway, I couldn't resist the shimmering golden brown skin and thought I would share with my three blog readers.

Also, an interesting bit of information: the Sterns, who write the 'Road Food' column for Gourmet, called Henderson, KY (my hometown) "the fried chicken capital of the solar system." No lie. There is a place called Bon Ton Mini Mart that makes the best fried chicken you've never had.

By the way, all three of you: I am so so sorry. But thank you for continuing to read.

agitate daily.

With the help of many willing friends and coworkers, my initial bitters attempt, labeled "agitate daily," is nearing completion of stage one, with many people having agitated it daily.

sloe gin fizz.

My good friend Dean Roethemeier lives in England and looks like a bird when he runs. He is a Marketing Executive with a very well known horse farm. That basically means he gets paid a lot of money and gets free laptops and nice things and still gets to have a good time doing it, drinking Pimm's and watching horse racing for a living.

He just emailed me and will be coming home for the Christmas season, complete with two bottles of fresh sloe gin he bottled himself - apparently there is a field of slow berries right behind his house that he uses. And of course, a couple of dope-ass bottles with the cool caps on top help, too.

Anyway, we will be consuming Sloe Gin Fizzes to celebrate the passing of 2008; I'm also hoping to get my hands on some smuggled 'Pimm's Winter' for the restaurant. We shall see.